Faulkenberry/Fortenberry

About us

4-26-04 Results should begin coming back from lab about March 21, 2004 There has been a delay and results are now due back 4-7-04 First results are back 4-12-04 We have three Fortenberry and one Falkenburg in the project The Fortenberry participants are from three seperate lines back to NC and SC in 1700's and early 18oo's. The Falkenburg is supposed to descend from the early NJ Falkenburgs that many genealogists believe the Faulkenberry and Fortenberry's descend from. We have several more people interested in the project and expect more from different lines to join soon. There is a Falconberry, a Faulkenberry and a descendent of James Leath Fortenberry bn in NC in 1750's. He along with family migrated to Missouri Territory and then became one of first settlers of NE Arkansas in early 1800's.

4/14/04 Our first match Yee Haw Although they are late, the 1st two samples have been returned for 12 markers. Both participants were tested for 25 markers but they are still running behind schedule on the rest of the test. Hopefully the other samples should be ready in a couple of days. Although we expected a match it was still great news to have one. Both ancestors were born in NC so we expected them to be related. IT is one step closer to finding the Patriarch. The suspense is killing me I am eagerly waiting for the other two tests to return. STAND BY!

4 20 04 12 Marker results came back for Warren Falkenburg and he is not related to the Fortenberry's. It was a long shot but one worth taking. It was not known if he descended from Jacob Falkenburg or not so we are still at square one on that theory but we now have a database for other Falkenburgs to join so over time we may still find some answers. Bobby Joe Fortenberry descendent of Jacob matched 11 of 12 markers with other two participants. He most likely is related to them but we will have to wait for the other 13 marker test to come back to be certain. The other 13 markers are back and were a match.

4-26-04 Oliver Joe Fortenberry has joined the project, he descends from James Leath of NC and Ar. His results will not be back for a couple of months.

5-1-04 Test results for 13 additional markers back for two participants. They matched on 24 of 25 markers so this proves that Jacob Faulkenberry,Isaac Fortenberry and Henry Fortenberry had a common ancestor.

5-19-04 Test results of 25 markers are back and all three match 24 of 25 Markers, proving that we all share a common male ancestor. Great news now we know there are at least three true Fortenberrys. lol Seriously this does tie our three lines together and puts us one step closer to finding out who he is.

6-10-04 Results are back for Oliver Joe Fortenberry descendent of James Leath Fortenberry and he is a match. This proves that all four lines traced back to 1700's have a common ancestor.

9-03-04 We have a new member who is testing, Glendle Faulkinbury. His line goes back to Anson Co.,NC This will be very interesting as many researchers believe the two families are from a common ancestor. I also hope to get a Falconbury to test soon.

11-3-04 Glendle Faulkinbury's results are back and he was not a match. It was rather surprising being as ancestors came from Anson County. The good news is we now have a Faulkinbury in the project to compare others with. Joe Faulkenberry's results should be back in a few weeks. It will be interesting to find out who he matches with.

10-24-04 We have a new member Joe Faulkenberry. He has signed up for a 37 marker test and should be very interesting to see the results. I will also be upgrading to a 37 Marker test. He is second Faulkenberry to join and first with that particular spelling. Joes sample has been sent to lab and results should be back between 12-26-04 and 1-7-05

12-18 Results are back for Joe Faulkenberry and he is a match. This is the first proven connection between the two families. We now have four seperate Fortenberry families and one Faulkenbeery family that have a common ancestor born before 1750. Now all we need is to find out who that is.

2-6-05 Joe matches my 25 marker test exactly. I will be upgrading to the 37 marker test to see if we can find out where the line seperated.

11-28-05 We have a new member, Jim Faulkinbury, He is a descendent of Pitman Faulkinbury born in 1810 Anson Co. NC. It will be interesting to see who he matches with.

12- 22-05 Jim Faulkinbury's results should be back 1-27-06. I also expect Ron Falconberry to join soon,

12-30-05 Ronald Falconberry has joined the project, his results will be back in a couple of months. This accomplishes one of our goals, we now have at least one member from each family line.I hope we can get some Faulkenburg's from Europe to join one of these days.

1-07-2006 Jim Faulkenbury's test is back and he is a match with Glendle Faulkenbury. This proves there was not a break in their line after Pitman.

1-23-06 I have sent in for a snp test to find out for positive if we are in the R1b Haplo group. I am pretty certain we are but this test will prove it for sure. Noone else that matches my results will need to upgrade because we will all be the same. I also plan to upgrade to 37 markers as soon as I get some extra money. That is also something some others might consider, to see if we can get a better picture on when our lines seperated.

2-16-2006 The resultsare back for my Haplo Group SNP test and we are R1B1 for sure. This didn't help us much being as it is the most common in Europe but I thought I would have it done to make sure. R1b1 Haplogroup R1b1 is the most common haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to have expanded throughout Europe as humans re-colonized after the last glacial maximum 10-12 thousand years ago. This lineage is also the haplogroup containing the Atlantic modal haplotype.

2-27-06 Ron Falconberry's results are back for the first 12 markers and we are a match. We now have proof that the Falconberry,Faulkenberry and Fortenberry families all descend from the same person. This is great news and accomplishes one of our main goals. Now we need to find more Falkinburg's to test to see if we can make the link to Europe. I am sure we will eventually as more people become interested in DNA research. Ron has a great website with lots of info. Here is the address. http://www.falconberry.com/genealogy/2.htm

3-7-06 The other 13 markers are back and Ron Falconberry is an exact match on all 25 markers with with Joe Thomas Faulkenberry, Randall Fortenberry and Bobby Joe Fortenberry. 3-22-06 I have upgraded my test to 37 markers. The results will be back end of April. It will be interesting to see if all 37 markers match with Joe Faulkenberry. If there is a difference, others might want to upgrade to see if we can differentiate between the lines.

4-11-06 My results are back for my 37 marker update. I match 35 of the 37 markers of Joe Faulkenberry. I am hoping others will update to 37 or 59 markers.

4-20-06 We have a new member joining our project, Elizabeth Clemmons, she is getting an uncle to test for her. He will be the first to test with the Falkenberry spelling. They descend from Frank Harris Falkenberry, son of John Presley Falkenberry, grandson of Jeremiah M Faulkenberry, great-grandson of Jacob Faulkenberry.

8-22-06 Results are back for Gene Walker Falkenberry and he is not a close match with anyone in the project.

8-30-06 I have decided to upgrade to the 67 marker test. It would be great if any of you that match with me on the 25 or 37 markers could also update to the 37 or 67 markers. The cost to update a 25 to 37 is 49.00 and from 37 to 67 is 99.00. I would be willing to pay for half the upgrade if money is an issue being as it doesn't accomplish much if I am the only one that upgrades. We do have a person by the surname of Lawrence that closely matches our DNA that is going to test for 67 so I decided to also to see how we match at 67.

9-23-06 We have a new member that has joined the project. He is Charlie Fortanbary. His Grandfather changed the spelling from Fortenberry and the family is believed to be from NC. William S Fortenberry born in 1797 in Cleveland County NC is his oldest known ancestor. Charlie Fortanbary's results are back and he is not a match yet with any others in the project.

3-07-07 We have a new member Dale Falkenberg. His results should be back in about 6 weeks. Dale's oldest known ancestor is John Falkenberg and married to Sophia Rasmussen. They were both born in Denmark. Their son John H Falkenberg was born in Denmark in 1890 and came to America in early 1900's, he married Anna Dillworth in 1913, she was born in 1894. They had seven children born in NJ. 4-12-07 Dale Falkenberg's results are back and he is not a match with anyone in the project. He is the first to test with known roots from Denmark. We expect more Falkenbergs to test in the near future.

11-10-2009 Charles Fortenberry has joined the project and he is the grandson of John Morgan Fortenberry from Mississippi. John was the son of John G, Son of William, son of Isaac. 01-25-10 Charles Fortenberry's results for 25 markers are back and he is a match with the main Fortenberry line. We now have Nine matches on the main line! Most of the matches go back before 1800.

08-12-11 We have a new member David Wayne Fortenberry and he is a match with the main line. We now have 10 matches and they all are from seperate families with no known common ancestor prior to 1800 This is Davids line; The 1880 census indicates (rightly or wrongly) that William Henry's
father was born in Kentucky.

My ancestors are:
Fortenberry (born in Kentucky), father of
William Henry Fortenberry, (born 1817 - 1830), married to Lydia
Bishop, parents of
William Henry Fortenberry (born 1864, died 1940), married Ursula
Luckey (1), parents of
George Henry Fortenberry (born 1885, died 1976), married Eliza Lovett
Hollowell, parents of
George LeRoy Fortenberry (born 1917, died 1988), married Josie Mozelle
Holder, parents of
David Wayne Fortenberry, Sara Ann Fortenberry and three other siblings

8-26-11

We have a few members that have signed up for the Family Finder tests and are having some good results. They have found that the Pittman and Jerimiah lines are closely related but their YDNA isn't a match. I would encourage more members to sign up if you can afford it. I would especially encourage those that don't match with the mainline to take the test.

9-8-11

We have now met all our goals we set when we started this project. We first proved through DNA that the Fortenberry, Faulkenberry and Falconberry Families all descend from a common ancestor. Now through latest DNA testing we have found out who that common ancestor is. His name is Lambert Van Valkenburg and he came to America in 1642 or 1643 from The Netherlands. He was born about 1614 and died in NY. The main line evidently descends from his grandson Henrick Van Valkenburg who is listed as Henrick Falkenburg at his son Isaac's christening in 1731. They evidently left shortly after that date and are next found in VA. in 1735. They then migrated to Anson County NC in 1745.

3-5-12

We now have two Van Valkenburgs in the project and expect a Van Valkenburg from The Netherlands to join soon. We expect to have more join including one with the Volkenburg spelling. It has now been eight years since the project began and we have accomplished so much. I would like to thank everyone who has made this possible. Without all of the members we would not have accomplished anything and would still be guessing as to where we came from. I would like to especially thank the new members from the Van Valkenburg line that have allowed us to put the remaining pieces of the puzzle together. Their early church records have been a great help and all of you should check out their site. It has lots of great information on the family. http://navvf.org/

8-29-12

We have a new member William Richard Fortenberry and he matches the main line. His oldest known relatives are Wiley Fortenberry, William, Eddie Layton, Sam A., Bill and William R.
I believe he is the first to test from the Wiley line.

10-1-13

We have a new member Raymond Fortenberry. He is a match with the main Fortenberry line and is the brother of Adrianne Criminger the author of the book " The Fortenberry Families of Southern Mississippi. His most distant known ancestor is John Faulkenberry born in VA. in 1740